Re: [Marxism] my take on Syriza's offering today
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * -Original Message- From: Andrew Pollack via Marxism marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu But in general it seems like the battle must shift now to the workplaces and the streets to fight for human needs no matter what the bankers want - and no matter what Tsipras agreed to. http://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2015/feb/24/greek-bailout-reform-plan-eurogroup-live-updates _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/thomasfbarton%40earthlink.net _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Novaya Gazeta: ‘It is Seen as Correct to Initiate Annexation of Eastern Regions of Ukraine to Russia’ | The Interpreter
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[Marxism] Fwd: Sharing the pains, indignities and anger: the New Left's strategy of industrialization
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Q: For those in the SWP(U.S.): The program laid out in “Leading the Party into Industry” (in the volume The Changing Face of US Politics) advocates “footloose” industrializers rather than militants who establish themselves for long periods of time (which seems to be promoted in much of the Maoist literature). Did SWP industrializing actually take this “mobile” form (meaning, SWPers quickly moving from one hot spot to another)? A: We were not in the SWP, but: we encouraged our people to stay for long periods of time. We valued the time spent getting to know people and allowing people to get to know us. Also, by the late 1970s the earlier militancy experienced by organizers was beginning to ebb and footloose industrializers were not as successful. The footloose method was also used by the Communist Party in the 1930s and 1940s especially when organizing unions. full: http://libcom.org/library/sharing-pains-indignities-anger-new-lefts-strategy-industrialization _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Missing from the Greek deal: figures | Paul Mason | Paul Mason
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Many people who voted for Syriza are privately up in arms over the scale of the retreat – but they blame Germany first, Europe second and their own government a long, long third. They will, for now, swallow evisceration of their party’s programme on two conditions: one, that the government goes on delivering on non-fiscal policies. It costs nothing, for example, to dissolve the detested riot squad DELTA, created after the unrest of 2008. The current plan is to “merge it” with the more established, less fascist infiltrated riot squads of the ordinary police. I would also expect the beefed up tax authorities to go in hard on a few symbolic members of the so called oligarchy. Success in such endeavours would barely register at the ECB, yet be seen as massive delivery on promises by the 42 per cent of voters who voted left on 25 January. full: http://blogs.channel4.com/paul-mason-blog/greece-eurogroup-syriza-varoufakis-grexit/3439 _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Richard Drayton on Syriza
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * (Drayton posted this to FB. He is quite a brilliant scholar and I recommend his Nature's Government highly, a book that shows how British imperialism and scientific research were joined at the hip in the 1700s and 1800s. I can't remember if he defriended me or vice versa when we had a falling out over Syria. We probably disagree on Ukraine now as well but that does not interfere with our affinity on other important matters, just as the case with my CounterPunch comrades.) Those who are denouncing the agreement made between the Greek government and Eurogroup seem not to understand three things: (1) Syriza is not a cadre/vanguard party, in which the leadership takes wise decisions and expects its supporters to follow it. It is a coalition which is committed first and foremost, even before its commitment to dismantling austerity, to the democratic principle that, for once, an elected government should represent the will of the people. The fact of the matter is that a large part or most of Syriza's voters did not sign up to to leaving the Euro or weakening Greece's integration in the European project. There may be a later moment in which there is a clear momentum towards that but at the moment, the Greek public wants a weakening then end of 2012 style austerity AND Greece's continued integration in the eurozone. Syriza's first priority is to maintain and build its patriotic coalition, and the close to 80% approval ratings of the government's negotiations with Eurogroup suggest they have succeeded in this. (2) A failure to complete a new agreement by February 28 would have had catastrophic consequences on Greek economy and society, and opened up space for far right mobilisation. And Greece had a weak hand to play in its negotiations with Eurogroup-- the best they could do was to insist on the principle of national sovereignty, that they would not as was originally demanded after the election reverse the reorganisation of the ministeries, the non-privatisation of Piraeus, the restoration of collective bargaining etc. Playing for time was essential. (3) The Troika's power, like that of all kinds of quasi-colonial supervision, depends a lot on the collaboration of the colonised and subordinated. It can be completely gutted from below by layers of decision making which shape the lived realities of policies in different directions. There is a lot still to be played for. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Russia’s pissed off patriots. Meduza reports from the ‘Anti-Maidan’ march in Moscow — Meduza. News, reports, interviews, videos from Russia
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Re: [Marxism] Richard Drayton on Syriza
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * 1) Syriza is implementing austerity. That is not representing “the will of the people”. The “will of the people” is almost always a contradictory formation riven by antagonisms and ambiguities. Between the Thessaloniki Programme and the commitment to the eurozone, a choice has to be made. To try to evade that choice by referring to “the will of the people” is the worst possible cop out, because it involves making the choice covertly, in bad faith. 2) No one disputes the difficult situation Greece was in. But if this deal was the best that could have been reached given Greece’s parlous position, then Tsipras should have been open about this, rather than claiming that the deal was a decisive break with the troika and the memorandum. By claiming success, as he did, he shifted the goalposts. As does Drayton when he claims that “the principle of national sovereignty” has been conserved in a deal which consecrates troika control. 3) What decisions can ‘gut’ the power of the troika, agreed in this deal, to approve or disapprove reforms proposed by Syriza? It’s not good enough to hand-wavingly refer to “layers of decision making”. What, specifically, is Drayton proposing? What, within the terms of this deal, can be “played for”? On 24 Feb 2015, at 09:23, Louis Proyect via Marxism marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu wrote: (1) Syriza is not a cadre/vanguard party, in which the leadership takes wise decisions and expects its supporters to follow it. It is a coalition which is committed first and foremost, even before its commitment to dismantling austerity, to the democratic principle that, for once, an elected government should represent the will of the people. (2) A failure to complete a new agreement by February 28 would have had catastrophic consequences on Greek economy and society, and opened up space for far right mobilisation. And Greece had a weak hand to play in its negotiations with Eurogroup-- the best they could do was to insist on the principle of national sovereignty (3) The Troika's power, like that of all kinds of quasi-colonial supervision, depends a lot on the collaboration of the colonised and subordinated. It can be completely gutted from below by layers of decision making which shape the lived realities of policies in different directions. There is a lot still to be played for. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Was an inducement offered to get Gillian Triggs, Australia's Human Rights Commissioner, to resign?
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Was an inducement offered to get Gillian Triggs,Australia's Human Rights Commissioner, to resign? If or when the Australian Federal Police refuses to investigate, or finds no breach, can we mount a private prosecution against Australia's Attorney General George Brandis? And if the meeting took place in Canberra, can the ACT Attorney General, and Labor Party Deputy Chief Minister, Simon Corbell, launch a prosecution? http://enpassant.com.au/2015/02/24/was-an-inducement-offered-to-get-gillian-triggs-the-human-rights-commissioner-to-resign/ _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Reply to the false claim that trade unions are being banned in Luhansk
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * I would also urge comrades to check out this article from the People and Nature blog: https://peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2015/01/20/num-solidarity-with-besieged-ukrainian-miners/. Unlike Annis, it takes both Kyiv and the separatists to task. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] my take on Syriza's offering today
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Well it looks like Tsipras has concretized his capitulation. From my reading of the deal, and commentary on it, it seems they've yielded in several areas, and that the only saving grace is the several vague phrases (will abide by standard x will not go beyond guideline y) which could be used to get around specific demands of the bankers. But in general it seems like the battle must shift now to the workplaces and the streets to fight for human needs no matter what the bankers want - and no matter what Tsipras agreed to. http://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2015/feb/24/greek-bailout-reform-plan-eurogroup-live-updates _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Richard Drayton on Syriza
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 2/24/15 7:56 AM, Andrew Pollack via Marxism wrote: Agreed with Richard S. Louis yesterday drew the conclusion - and please correct my phrasing if I'm being unfair - that the Sandinistas did all they could and that defeat was inevitable. Same logic being used here by Drayton and many others. In that case Syriza's leadership should have been honest about the potential, and should have told its enthusiastic followers around the globe, jubilant after its electoral victory: sorry, nothing to see here, move along. No more so than when Carlos Fonseca went into the mountains with the hope of creating a new society. Or Ho Chi Minh, or Maurice Bishop, Thomas Sankara, and others too numerous to mention. The entire legacy of proletarian revolutions in the 20th century has been failure, just as was the case with the 19th century's Paris Commune. There is something quixotic about challenging the capitalist class but we do it anyhow. Fidel Castro started out politically in a party that had a lot in common with Syriza. Its ineffectiveness persuaded him to launch the July 26th Movement. Every step in the road against capitalism is worth it because it encourages others to struggle. Passivity is our worst enemy. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: Elena Papadopoulou: 10 Points on the Eurogroup decision
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * 1. The Eurogroup of the 20th of February was the end of the first (short) round of negotiations between the new Greek government and its European partners. 2. To judge what the government won and what it lost, as well as what it did not win and what it did not lose, we have to take into account three things: the conditions under which the negotiation took place, the goals that each side tried to achieve, the alternative choices. 3. How many sides were actually negotiating around the table? The answer is: Very many. The outcome, but equally importantly, the interim stages of the negotiating process, included important stakes not only for Greece and Germany, but for each and every one of the 17 Eurozone countries. However, even the approach that reduces the stakes involved at the level of “national interests”, is misleading. In reality, the FInMins of all participating elected governments were negotiating the politics (and the relative power) of their respective governments, in the same way that the European Commission was negotiating its politics (and its relative power) through J-C Junker, the ECB through M. Draghi, and the IMF through C. Lagarde. 4. Schauble’s extreme aggression was indicative of the pressure that the German government was facing in its effort to safeguard the primacy of its own view of the crisis, as well as the continuation of the austerity policies. It was also indicative of its effort to maintain important players bound to its project. For this reason, the stance of France and Italy were of particular importance. The cracks that could be achieved by the Greek government –at this stage- mainly came from this side, rather than from the side of the “southern front” (Spain, Portugal, Ireland), which was perfectly aligned with the German lead, in view of a possible rise of the Left in their respective countries. In a sense, the game they chose to play was even more dangerous. Their choice to identify with the German strategy was clearly against the interests of their own people, meaning that, as long as Greece is able to ensure even small victories, the pressure on them will grow full: http://www.analyzegreece.gr/topics/left-goverment/item/137-elena-papadopoulou-10-points-on-the-eurogroup-decision-of-the-20th-february-on-greece _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] The Islamist Phoenix
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Ironically, Ron Jacobs and Counterpunch are willing to promote any ISIS story as truth if it means they may be able to blame the death of an ISIS hostage on a NATO ally. Clay Claiborne, Director Vietnam: American Holocaust http://VietnamAmericanHolocaust.com Linux Beach Productions Venice, CA 90291 (310) 581-1536 Read my blogs at the Linux Beach http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/ http://wlcentral.org/user/2965/track On Tue, Feb 24, 2015 at 6:25 AM, Ron Jacobs via Marxism marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu wrote: POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * http://stillhomeron.blogspot.com/2015/02/different-story-same-futile-war.html _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/clayclai%40gmail.com _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] The Islamist Phoenix
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On 2/24/2015 6:25 AM, Ron Jacobs via Marxism wrote: http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/02/20/different-story-same-futile-war/l _ This is so disgusting. Really! Yet the US has no plans to investigate how she was killed Over 200,000 Syrians slaugfhtered in this conflict and you are demanding an investigation for one American? we should not fall for the “white girl mutilated by the scary dark men” narrative being used here. Wasn't it ISIS that dragged Kayla Muller's dead body into the Jordanian air strike? ISIS exists because of US policy in the Middle East. Let's not mention Assad, who sent them security officers, released members from jail, gave them safe habor and bought their oil. not to mention the innocents killed who are not white Is this the Counterpunch way of not mentioning all those Syrians dying from Russian weapons? What makes this another disgusting Cesspool piece is the way it unites with and supports the imperialist coverup of Assad's crimes. It carries on as if ISIS was the main killer in Syria. That is a disgusting lie but it is one that unites CBS and Counterpunch. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] The Islamist Phoenix
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * http://stillhomeron.blogspot.com/2015/02/different-story-same-futile-war.html _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: The euro or the drachma? | SocialistWorker.org
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * The Greek comrades of the ISO, who are responsible for translating and publishing John Riddell's book on the Comintern and workers governments, are very good IMHO. http://socialistworker.org/2012/01/11/the-euro-or-the-drachma But I agree that a return to the drachma, if it happens under the direction of capitalists and their state, would have devastating results for the Greek population. The drachma would be undervalued from the start and would instantly lose even more value when it is introduced. This would wreak havoc on the value of everything that is important to wage-earners (their wages, pensions, housing, etc.) and also farmers (the value of cultivable land). On the other hand, the capitalists--who would retain over 600 billion euros deposited abroad, more than twice the sum of the Greek debt--would be able to grab for just pennies public enterprises, hospitals, land and more. This would represent a colossal transfer of wealth from the public to the private sector, comparable only to what happened in the countries of Eastern Europe after the fall of the Stalinist regimes in 1989. Unfortunately, this trap for workers, spotted by the Communist Party, has not been detected by a section of the radical anti-capitalist left. At its recent conference, the ANTARSYA alliance of left organizations adapted the slogan an anti-capitalist exit from the euro. This formulation isn't honest about the facts. If we are talking about an anti-capitalist overthrow of the existing system and the new system that would emerge from this, then a slogan about currency isn't the best place to start. The slogan all power to the workers' councils would be much better. But this only highlights the enormous distance between this goal and the current tasks and responsibilities of the anti-capitalist left. For most of the comrades of ANTARSYA, the way to resolve the contradiction in their everyday political activity is to forget about the adjective anti-capitalist and speak only about an exit from the euro, pure and simple. They talk about Greece regaining the weapon of monetary policy in dealing with the economy, about a devaluation as a way to rebuild competitiveness, and about a reconstruction of the country. This is a retreat toward the ideas of realist radical economists. For example, Costas Lapavitsas proposes an immediate return to the drachma and a systematic devaluation as the only way to strengthen the competitiveness of Greek enterprises and reinforce exports, which would make possible a general reconstruction of the country and the economy. (clip) _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Fwd: No, Syriza Has Not Surrendered | Common Dreams | Breaking News Views for the Progressive Community
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/02/23/no-syriza-has-not-surrendered _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] February 26 - March 13: Israeli Apartheid Week NYC 2015
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * On Facebook: http://on.fb.me/17H5WW9 The 11th annual Israeli Apartheid Week is coming to New York from February 26 until March 13. Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is an annual international series of informative events including panel discussions, cultural performances and film screenings held in cities and on university campuses across the globe to raise awareness about Israel’s apartheid policies towards Palestinians and to build support for the growing nonviolent Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. SCHEDULE: February 26, 5:30PM: CUNY School of Law Connecting Struggles: The Intersection of Black Lives Matter and Palestine Solidarity 2 Court Square Long Island City (Queens), NY 11101 Room: 1/205 (first floor) http://on.fb.me/17H74ZO February 26, 6PM: Brooklyn College Feminist Perspectives on Resistance and Solidarity in Palestine and Israel (Open to BC/CUNY only) Brooklyn College Student Center E27th St and Campus Rd Brooklyn, NY 11210 Room: Gold Room, 6th Floor http://on.fb.me/17H7oYC February 27, 3PM: CUNY Graduate Center Feminist Perspectives on Resistance and Solidarity in Palestine and Israel 34th Fifth Avenue, Room C201 http://on.fb.me/17H9mIH March 1, 1 PM: Al-Awda #No2Netanyahu - Protest War Criminal's Address to Congress 1PM - FOX News, W. 48th St 6th Ave, Manhattan 3PM - Israeli Mission to the UN, E. 42nd St 2nd Ave http://on.fb.me/1vkkGWe March 2, 6PM: Drew University Soldier and Refusenik http://on.fb.me/17H81Sa March 3, 7PM: Jewish Voice for Peace BDS in NYC: Successes and Challenges First Unitarian Congregational Society 116 Pierrepont Street Brooklyn, NY http://on.fb.me/17H8rYs March 4, 6PM: Drew University Film Screening: Roadmap to Apartheid March 5: John Jay College TBA March 7, 4PM: Direct Action Front for Palestine Palestine, Boycott and Beyond Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew 520 Clinton Ave Brooklyn, NY11231 http://on.fb.me/17Har36 March 9, 6:30PM: Pace University- Pleasantville Panel Discussion: Palestine 101 March 9, 6PM: Hunter College Soldier and Refusenik March 10, 2PM: College of Staten Island David Sheen: Inside Israel's Race Wars http://on.fb.me/1zECAQa March 10, 5:30PM: Adalah-NY The Waldorf Astoria Protest Against Friends of the IDF Gala http://on.fb.me/17HaPP4 March 10, 6:30PM: Pace University- Pleasantville Film Screening: Occupation 101 March 11, 6:30PM: Jews for Palestinian Right of Return The New School Palestinian Right of Return: Going Beyond the 1967 Occupation March 12, 6PM: Brooklyn College Book talk: An Indigenous People’s History of the United States March 13, 2PM: Direct Action Front for Palestine Direct Action to #FreeHaresBoys and #StopG4S Bryant Park http://on.fb.me/1zECIil -- Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað. _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] The Islamist Phoenix
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * on Dienstag, 24. Februar 2015 at 15:25, Ron Jacobs via Marxism wrote: Nothing. Just providing a link to a link Why didn't you provide the real link to the original article, this one: http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/02/20/different-story-same-futile-war/ The detour forced by you makes me angry. Cheers, Lüko Willms _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] A Thought on Greece
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * I don't know what the internal situation is in Syriza, or if the Left Platform has any seats in parliament. But if they do, they could draw up a list of demands on the leadership, and in the event of further retreats, threaten to resign their seats if their demands are not met. Even one resignation could bring the government down. Then the leadership would have to decide either to toughen up its act or lose power. Jim Creegan _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] SYRIZA: 'For us, structural reforms are the fight against corruption and corporate tax evasion' | Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * February 24, 2015 -- SYRIZA’s *Yiannis Bournous* (pictured above), responsible for international matters, interviewed by**/Esquerda.net/; * What assessment do you make of the February 20 agreement with the Eurogroup?* The document adopted at the Eurogroup gives Greece an extra four months to present a developed plan of structural reforms. The document gives us breathing space, both in terms of time and economic conditions. Even if some of the considerations in the document can be dubbed ambiguous, politically and technically, the important thing is that we have cancelled the deal made by the previous government to impose new austerity measures – including a further reduction of pensions, more tax increases on the working classes and the middle class, cutting job protections and measures on housing evictions. This is the first time a heavily indebted country has secured some slack, both financial and timewise, allowing us to breathe, thanks to what [Greek finance minister Yanis]**Varoufakis called the “creative ambiguity” of its formulation. On the other hand, [German finance minister Wolfgang] Schäuble failed in his plan to stifle Greece on February 28 – which was the deadline for the [last tranche of bail-out] loans under the memorandum – and lead the country to a dead end without liquidity and then impose the conditions he wanted on the new government. Fortunately, the plan failed and we have a new discussion phase which will take four months. Full interviews at http://links.org.au/node/4306 _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] [swp_usa] Fwd: Sharing the pains, indignities and anger: the New Left's strategy of industrialization
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * One of the crazy things about the Barnes industrialisation project was the way the Wobblies were invoked via Cannon. The footloose Wobblies' organisers, however, belonged to a particular time. They made sense in their context but it was totally ahistorical and non-materialist to deploy that model in the 1970s. It was also dishonest and cult-like because, for a start, certain people (Barnes, Waters, Clark, a few others) had the luxury of staying in New York and leading very petty-bourgeois lives, while the ranks were moved around like pieces on the chessboard. BarnesWaters were more like employers who expected employees to up stakes and move around as they moved the production line around. It was also cult-like because moving people around like that meant that their only stable bonds were with the cult. It was their family, their friends, their social circle, their life, and there wasn't anything outside of that in any ongoing way. This served to keep people in line. Life inside the cult might have been hellish, but life outside it was almost unimaginable. I guess it's a comment on what hell life in the cult is that most people still left it anyway. However, a significant portion of those who left kept up some link by being pledge-paying enablers of BarnesWaters Inc. The Maoist (and IS) forms of industrialisation were much more realistic and had the merit of taking place when there was a radicalisation across sections of the working class. The Maoists, in particular, also seem to have oriented significantly towards a vanguard layer of black workers. By the time the brilliant strategists atop the SWP developed 'the turn' it was already too late. They missed the main period of working class radicalisation and just as they had pursued an extreme campus policy they inverted it into pursuing an extreme blue-collar implantation policy. Given how bizarre the outfit (and its little offshoots elsewhere) were becoming, they may have gone into the blue-collar working class physically, but they were an alien presence. The 'norms' of the cult, far from being proletarian, are extremely petty-bourgeois: they're what the petty-bourgeoisie thinks is how the working class are. The real flesh-and-blood actual working class live rather different lives and no significant number of them would ever be attracted by the kind of religious cult that the Barnesites increasingly resembled. Lastly, keeping the members on the move and making them busy, busy busy, with twice yearly sub drives and a big fund drive or two every year, meant they were far too harassed by the demands of the cult leaders to sit down and think and critically reflect on anything. Instead they were in a continuous condition bordering on shell-shock. Phil On Wed, Feb 25, 2015 at 9:25 AM, Louis Proyect l...@panix.com [swp_usa] swp_...@yahoogroups.com wrote: Q: For those in the SWP(U.S.): The program laid out in “Leading the Party into Industry” (in the volume The Changing Face of US Politics) advocates “footloose” industrializers rather than militants who establish themselves for long periods of time (which seems to be promoted in much of the Maoist literature). Did SWP industrializing actually take this “mobile” form (meaning, SWPers quickly moving from one hot spot to another)? A: We were not in the SWP, but: we encouraged our people to stay for long periods of time. We valued the time spent getting to know people and allowing people to get to know us. Also, by the late 1970s the earlier militancy experienced by organizers was beginning to ebb and footloose industrializers were not as successful. The footloose method was also used by the Communist Party in the 1930s and 1940s especially when organizing unions. full: http://libcom.org/library/sharing-pains-indignities-anger-new-lefts-strategy-industrialization __._,_.___ -- Posted by: Louis Proyect l...@panix.com -- Reply via web post https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/swp_usa/conversations/messages/17660;_ylc=X3oDMTJyOGtxOGp1BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzE1Mzk4NzM4BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTMwMzI4OARtc2dJZAMxNzY2MARzZWMDZnRyBHNsawNycGx5BHN0aW1lAzE0MjQ4MDk1MDM-?act=replymessageNum=17660 • Reply to sender l...@panix.com?subject=Re%3A%20Fwd%3A%20Sharing%20the%20pains%2C%20indignities%20and%20anger%3A%20the%20New%20Left%27s%20strategy%20of%20%22industrialization%22 • Reply to group swp_...@yahoogroups.com?subject=Re%3A%20Fwd%3A%20Sharing%20the%20pains%2C%20indignities%20and%20anger%3A%20the%20New%20Left%27s%20strategy%20of%20%22industrialization%22 • Start a New Topic
[Marxism] Kevin Ovenden on Syriza
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * (From FB) My postings here will be episodic for a few weeks as I am commissioned to write a book in short order on the Greek crisis, Syriza and socialist strategy. The plan for that writing includes weekly gobbets on Greece and the politics of the austerity crisis in Europe. Here are what I hope are some useful reference points for the discussion on the international left about the Greece-Troika deal and the retreat of the Greek government. 1) I know of no one whose enthusiasm for the electoral success of Syriza and of the Greek left was due to their believing that somehow the party had resolved the perennial questions of socialist strategy and that through the modest act of taking office the entire direction of European capitalism would be changed. 2) In Greece certainly, everyone maintained that the question of social mobilisation and working class collective power remained important/crucial/central. For some (e.g. Syriza's modernising tendency) that might have been just mouthing words expected of them, but a) that shows what the expectations are, and b) most of the left - with a spectrum of strategic views - genuinely is committed to that resistance, 3) While it is true that the workers and social movements have not been at their peak over the last two years, that is not because of a simplistic and essentially social democratic stock analysis: workers and the masses exhausted themselves in showing the limits of the social movement. From there they turned to the political solution - the election of a government through a bourgeois parliament. First, the workers and other movements are far from exhausted. The support for Syriza and its call for a government of the left was not out of the defeat of activist organs of the working class movement. While not exhausted, the social struggles ran up against a government in the form of Samaras's coalition which could not be moved substantially by sectional struggle. The political question was thus posed. One answer was for the generalisation of the movement and for it to take up the political questions directly. By that I don't mean *discussing* politics but, for example, the bank workers *doing* the politics of capital controls and expropriation of the assets of tax dodging oligarchs, or teachers striking during the exam period and therefore raising many very sharp questions, including the prospect of an entirely different organisation of education. Second, unsurprisingly the election of a left government seemed a more realisable prospect for most people. But third - and friends outside of Greece would do well to remind ourselves - this answer was *for the working class and social movement activists who drove the struggle* not necessarily in opposition to the first one above. This widespread dual consciousness among those who have mounted massive resistance in the crisis years is the social substrate for the actual strategic debate now on the left. Those who wish to have a debate with that social reality absent are left with just ideology. That is necessary but insufficient, certainly when it comes to seeking to persuade others of a strategic line when they have a different ideological position or theoretical tradition. 4) There has been a swing left in Greek society and an intense politicisation of the hundreds of thousands engaged in collective resistance. Most Syriza voters are former Pasok (social democratic) voters. But they have not simply switched over with their old social democratic heads unmoved - as if they had swapped their brand of detergent. Many have been involved alongside the activists of the left (Syriza and not) in the social movements and have therefore interacted with arguments and leadership much more radical than the government. 5) The precise balance of mass consciousness is unknown. What we do know is that it is in flux and that it is not being driven by some secular trend of defeat, demoralisation and dealignment from a class-based left. 6) We also know - and this was for those of us on the anti-capitalist left of particular importance - that Syriza lacks the tradition and weight inside the working class and social movements which made it easier for all sorts of social democratic governments to sell unnecessary retreats or attack the working class movement - the governments of Mitterrand and Papandreou, for example. 7) So the central battle lines remain unresolved. The relative quiescence of the *parliamentary* left and of the left structures in Syriza will have shocked a fair few friends. I hope people don't take it unkindly if I say - as I
Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Reading The Greek Deal Correctly
POSTING RULES NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. * Here's an analysis by German economist Norbert Haring that generally corroborates Galbraith's evaluation: http://norberthaering.de/index.php/de/newsblog2/27-german/news/274-worth-it#1-weiterlesen and an interesting article in Fortune magazine based on interviewing Galbraith: Greece’s fate: In Angela Merkel’s hands? by Shawn Tully February 20, 2015 http://fortune.com/2015/02/20/greece-germany-yanis-varoufakis On Mon, Feb 23, 2015 at 3:30 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu wrote: [Reading the Greek Deal Correctly] By James Galbraith http://www.socialeurope.eu/2015/02/greek-deal _ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
